


Wash Away

by voices_in_my_head



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-11-26
Packaged: 2017-11-19 15:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's easy to forget what Erik has been through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wash Away

**Author's Note:**

> Charles is an awesome characters but when it comes to Erik he's a bit blind, I mean the dude went through the Holocaust ! Do you really think that he wouldn't kill Shaw and everyone that got on his way? Yeah, suuure.

 

Charles was a kid during WWII. What he remembers from that time is meeting Raven, watching his mother and stepfather argue and listening about the war, but like a thing that was happening far far away, and in a certain aspect that was the truth.

When he went to England to study, he still didn’t learn much more about the war. In that moment the lives British people and American took weren’t that different and some days he would get up without remembering that just a few years back millions had died.

Then again, it was easy to forget. The world was on the verge of starting another war and in the meantime civil fights were happening every day.

When he understood he wouldn’t be able to help the CIA on taking Shaw he started backing off. He knew that if he couldn’t help, then he wasn’t doing any good just hanging there.

Then he felt anger. In such amount that he had never felt before. Anger, pain and hurt, and for just a second it was like they were his own emotions.

By that time he was mostly working on remote. His body was there but his mind was with the man, trying to understand where all that came from.

It wasn’t until the man was being dragged after the submarine that he saw memories from torture sessions. He felt sick and he knew that it would take a long time for Erik to believe him when he told him he wasn’t alone.

_“I thought I was alone.”_

_“You’re not. Erik, you’re not alone.”_

That night Erik slept on a room two doors from his and Charles had to make an effort not to hear the others thoughts. It wasn’t just that Erik thought in a very loud way, but it was also that he wanted to see. To understand what the other had been through.

When he told Erik two days later that he knew what he had been through it wasn’t the truth. He knew it and Erik knew it, but still he stayed and Charles tried to understand him without resort to listening to his thoughts.

Erik didn’t usually talk about his memories. Not about his family, about the war or about his search for Shaw.

It was like he just existed in that moment.

Charles will admit that he was… attracted? No, that wasn’t the right word but it came close to it. It wasn’t physical, or at least not just that, it was something more.

Charles had met a lot of people, _been_ a lot of people, even if for just some minutes. But Erik… he was _unique._ His mind, his thoughts; Charles had never felt somebody like him.

So it was easy to forget what he had been through. Erik was a strong man and as much as he clanged to his old memories, he had also been able to part them. They were there for when he needed, but if not, then he kind of just tried to live without them.

Charles wasn’t like that and he doubted he would ever meet someone like him again.

Sitting on a wheel chair he thinks back on Cuba.

Telling Erik that they were just men following orders. Really, how stupid of him.

Maybe if he had said something different; if he had said “I love you”, “don’t do this”, “for me”, it wouldn’t have happened.

He would be able to walk and more importantly, Erik would be besides him. 

He thinks, no, he _knows_ this is going to be a question that will bother him for years and years, maybe until the day he dies. Even in that day, he doubts he’ll have an answer. But maybe it’ll be easier to deal with it.

 


End file.
